Friday, December 21, 2012

TSA Christmas Traveling Tips 2012

The MyTSA App: Want TSA information anywhere,
anytime? Use the MyTSA app. Among the great features, there’s a “Can I
Bring My…” tool. Want to know if you can pack a turducken or a light saber?
This is the tool for you. Type in the name of the item you’re curious about and
it tells you if the item is permitted or not, along with packing tips. This
isn’t a Magic 8 Ball, so please don’t expect it to prophetically answer yes and
no questions. A wait time feature is also available. It relies on crowd sourcing, which
means the more people who use it, the better.

Foods: Cakes, pies, bread, donuts, turkeys, etc., are all permitted. Here is a list of
items that should be placed in your checked bags or shipped: cranberry
sauce, creamy dips and spreads (cheeses, peanut butter, etc.), gift baskets
with liquid or gel food items (salsa, jams and salad dressings), gravy, jams,
jellies, maple syrup, oils and vinegars, sauces, soups, wine, liquor and beer.
As I said in last year’s post, contrary to popular belief, fruitcake is a
delicious edible and permitted cake, not a WMD.Risk Based
Expedited Screening: TSA
has implemented TSA Pre✓™, anexpedited prescreening
initiative for known travelers, active
duty service members and airline crewmembers at select airports, and
modified procedures for screening passengers 12 and under
and 75
and older to reduce, although not eliminate, the need for a pat-down. TSA
Pre✓™ is currently available at 35
airports.

Expanded Use of
Canines: To further
enhance explosive detection screening, TSA is expanding its use of canine
teams and deploying them throughout the airport environment, including the
security checkpoint. These teams are trained to detect trace amounts of
explosives that are present in the air.

Shaving Razors:
You can get more info from
our blog post on this subject where the pictures will answer
all of your questions. Wrapped gifts
are allowed, but not encouraged:Wrapped
gifts are allowed, but we recommend waiting until you land to wrap them.If there’s something in the gift that needs to be inspected, we may have to
open it. Our officers try their best not to mangle the gift wrap, but it’s not
a guarantee and it also slows down the line for everybody else when we have to
do this. We’d rather unwrap the gifts that are under our trees.

Eggnog can be an alternate to fuel depending on
who’s mixing it. Sometimes there’s a fine line between a beverage and hazmat.
Just sayin’…Remember the 3.4
oz baggie rule at the checkpoint. Unless it’s in small container (3.4 oz or
less), this tasty liquid treat is not allowed.

Beverages: Wine, liquor, beer, and all of your
favorite beverages are permitted in your checked baggage. You can
also bring beverages packaged in 3.4 oz or less bottles in your carry-on
bags in the allowed in the 3.4 oz baggie.

Makeup: Any liquid makeup cosmetics such as
eyeliner, nail polish, liquid foundation, etc.,
should be placed in the baggie. That goes for perfume as well. Powder makeup is
fine.

Homemade Soda Machines and Other Gifts with Compressed
Gas (CO2) Cartridges: If you’re planning to take a homemade soda
making machine on an airplane, be advised that they include CO2 carbinators,
which contain compressed gas, to add the fizz to the soda. Compressed gas
cylinders are prohibited in both carry-on and checked bags unless the regulator valve is
completely disconnected from the cylinder and the cylinder is no longer sealed
(i.e. the cylinder has an open end). The type of carbinator in commercial
soda making machines do not have this feature. We recommend
shipping this item to be safe.

Some Snow
Globes are Permitted Now: TSA
now allows small snow globes in carry-on luggage when packed in a passenger's
plastic 3.4 oz bag. Snow globes that appear to contain less than 3.4 ounces
(approximately tennis-ball size) will be permitted if the entire snow globe,
including the base, is able to fit in the same one clear, plastic, quart-sized,
re-sealable bag as a passenger’s other liquids.

Double Check
Your Bag for Guns: Seriously!!!It sounds silly, but if you read our Week in Review posts,
you’ll see that our officers find guns every day at checkpoints in the U.S. –
some even loaded. Save yourself the hassle of a bag check, a police interview
and a potential arrest by making sure you leave your gun at home.

Christmas Crackers:Not the kind you eat with a delicious
cheese-ball (My mom makes the best), but the kind that “cracks” when you pull
it apart. They’re really cool and are a part of a lot of people’s Christmas
traditions, but they’re prohibited on aircraft.

TSA Contact
Center: The Contact Center
hours were recently extended and a representative is now available Monday –
Friday, 8 a.m. – 11 p.m. Eastern time; weekends and federal holidays, 9 a.m. –
8 p.m. Eastern time. The TCC can be reached at 866-289-9673. Passengers can
also reach out to the TSA
Contact Center (TCC) with questions about TSA procedures, upcoming travel
or to provide feedback or voice concerns. Unfortunately, we can’t assist with
questions related to preparing a turkey or any other delicious holiday staples.

TSA Cares
Helpline: Travelers or
families of passengers with disabilities and medical conditions may call the TSA
Cares helpline toll free 855-787-2227, 72 hours prior to traveling with any
questions about screening policies, procedures and what to expect at the
security checkpoint. A TSA Cares helpline representative is available during
all TSA Contact Center hours.

Christmas
Sweaters: As I said in
last year’s post, while some Christmas sweaterscan have a nauseating
effect on passengers, they are currently permitted through TSA checkpoints.
After searching the web for my favorite Christmas sweater pic this year, I
had to go with this one.

Follow us on
Twitter for travel tips,
blog post announcements, and other useful information. You can find a list of
our national and regional twitter accounts here. Also, be sure to
print out this handy travel
checklist prior to packing.

You can also visit TSA.gov and read our "What to Know Before You Go" page for even more travel tips. We hope these tips help improve your travel over the full Winter Holiday Travel
period.

It is so sad that Bob Burns has time to post humoreous content on this blog but can't seem to find the time or back bone to address the terrible treatment of a 12 year girl in a wheel chair at DFW. It would also be nice to hear something from TSA about the treatment of the terminally ill lady which happened months ago. The cases of abuse at the hands of TSA just seem to be getting more common and more and more insulting to the American flying public. I hope you and the rest of TSA's wonderful work force have a Merry Christmas

Regarding the Christmas Sweaters: While they are beautiful and festive, some of the ornamentation can cause problems with the detectors. Better to not wear them to the airport. Same thing with those nice jeans full of metal studs that your daughter just got from her Grandma.

You omitted one of the most obvious travel tips for the holiday season - avoid airports and the TSA altogether. This year the TSA attained a new low - the TSA is prominently featured on the ABC News site for its repeated pattern of misconduct. Until the TSA can be reformed, Americans should avoid or limit air travel altogether.

"while some Christmas sweaters can have a nauseating effect on passengers" Come on, the example you selected is not safe, at least, not safe for work! I think that's called Visual Terrorism at the least! hahaha.Happy Holidays guys, keep up the good work.

How is a pie allowed and so many other items not allowed. A pie would have much more liquid or gel than a lot of other banned items. For example, an apple pie will have more liquid or gel than a jar of peanut butter, yet the peanut butter is not allowed. It doesn't make any sense.

This would be much easier if the TSA would scrap or lessen the restrictions on liquids. You can test liquids. I've seen it happen at the gate area, so why can't random liquid testing be performed at the checkpoint?

Can you post any tips on what to expect when the TSA's explosives testing falsely identifies a passenger as having explosive residue on them? The test method that the TSA uses seems to generate a lot of false positives. I haven't heard of any actual bombs found with the TSA's testing method. It sounds like most of the time, the accused used the wrong soap.

Bob, I hope you know that the vast majority of us are in support of the TSA's efforts to keep us safe. Poor ol' Anonymous is obviously a bored, vicious troll who needs to go back under his bridge. If he really cared about the way things are working at the TSA he would stand up and ask the right people, with his (or her) real name, not keep harrassing the dude that writes the weekly blog. P.S. The Christmas sweater picture was terrifying!! Happy Holidays!

Anonymous said... "Christmas Crackers: the kind that “cracks” when you pull it apart. ...but they’re prohibited on aircraft."

No one has every explained why they are not allowed on aircraft.

Is the TSA worried that spontaneous Christmas Cheer might suddenly break out on the aircraft?

Is the TSA worried that if you about 9,000 of them you might be able to blow up a small glass of water or at least make someone go momentarily deaf from the crack?

Why?

Why are Christmas Crackers not allowed on an Aircraft?

December 17, 2012 5:38 PM----------You mean the ones with the gunpowder in them? that's what causes them to crack. Or do you have a measurement for what amt of gunpowder should be allowed on an aircraft?

Bob,Has the app been fixed yet or do you still get information on traveling with pets when you type in "ice" (as in frozen water)?You see, since the app uses verbatim word matching, when you type in "ice", it looks at words with "Police" in them which then links to traveling with K-9s. So, typing in "Ice" will immediately bring up "How to travel with pets".Yup. try it yourself.

"....Christmas Crackers... You mean the ones with the gunpowder in them? that's what causes them to crack. Or do you have a measurement for what amt of gunpowder should be allowed on an aircraft?"

Like I said... if you get about 9,000 of them you might have enough energy to damage... well nothing really. Even if you had 9,000 Crackers, or even just the Crack part of the Bon-Bon you wouldn't have enough material to do anything other than make a loud bang. And having two people try to pull apart a Christmas Cracker big enough to hold the 9,000 bits would be a bit obvious and the Bon-Bon wouldn't fit in the overhead so it would have to be checked anyway.

And they do not have gun powder in them. Ask the internets, they will confirm.

Bob, I hope you know that the vast majority of us are in support of the TSA's efforts to keep us safe. Poor ol' Anonymous is obviously a bored, vicious troll who needs to go back under his bridge. If he really cared about the way things are working at the TSA he would stand up and ask the right people, with his (or her) real name, not keep harrassing the dude that writes the weekly blog. P.S. The Christmas sweater picture was terrifying!! Happy Holidays!

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I disagree with your supposition that most Americans support the TSA. Most Americans do not support having their family or themselves virtually stripped searched or inappropriately touched ("patdown") by a unionized government employee. Moreover, the repeated and continuous stories of misconduct illuminate a lack of leadership that must be pervasvie throughout the TSA. Americans deserve better.

To Anonymous who mistakenly believes that the "vast majority of us" support the TSA and keep us safe, Bob is the public face of the TSA, he writes in TSA-speak, refuses to answer questions, ignores and deflects.

That's why he is harassed constantly.

And, BTW, why didn't you leave your real name? I guess you, like the TSA, have a double standard.

There are other items screeners recommend you leave at home, ranging from an assortment of saws, knives and replica guns to a spear gun and a homemade wooden mallet. All have been confiscated from travelers screened at TSA checkpoints, Lisa Farbstein, TSA spokeswoman at the airport, said Thursday afternoon.

So is TSA finally telling the truth about how items are confiscated at the checkpoint are did Lisa not get the message to lie?

Does anyone seriously believe Bob would say something on the wheelchair incident other then, "All proper procedures were followed." No video has been released so I'm doubting any will be. Same with pretty much all the high profile incidents recently. I'd like to have faith in the TSA, I really would, but they continually show they simply are not credible instead.

No one is ever 'strip searched'. The constant over exaggeration is quite boring. Just as not all TSA employees are bad, in any career field there are a few bad eggs that make all the others look bad. I think it is time for some folks to get a new hobby besides bashing TSA. If everyone worried about improving themselves instead of criticizing others the world would be a better place. Try turning over a new leaf for 2013, I am. Think positive, you will live longer!

No one is ever 'strip searched'. The constant over exaggeration is quite boring. Just as not all TSA employees are bad, in any career field there are a few bad eggs that make all the others look bad. I think it is time for some folks to get a new hobby besides bashing TSA. If everyone worried about improving themselves instead of criticizing others the world would be a better place. Try turning over a new leaf for 2013, I am. Think positive, you will live longer!

********************************

A few bad apples in the TSA? Is that why ABC News listed the top 20 airports for TSA theft with multiple incidents by airport? The TSA argument that theft occurs everywhere is just another example of how many government bureaucrats have come to "accept the unacceptable". It's a sad and pathetic argument.

In addition, the TSA does virtually strip search Americans with backscatter machines. Moreover, only recently has the TSA agreed to conduct an independent study of the health effects of these machines AFTER millions of American families have already been exposed to these potentially harmful machines.

I agree that Americans need to do more than criticize the TSA - Americans need to demand change inside this disgraced agency in 2013.

Anonymous said...No one is ever 'strip searched'. The constant over exaggeration is quite boring. Just as not all TSA employees are bad, in any career field there are a few bad eggs that make all the others look bad. I think it is time for some folks to get a new hobby besides bashing TSA. If everyone worried about improving themselves instead of criticizing others the world would be a better place. Try turning over a new leaf for 2013, I am. Think positive, you will live longer!

Susan Richart sez - "There were no comments between 12/22/12 at 12:02 a.m. and 12/23/12 at 11:36 p.m.?"

If there were comments during that time frame, they would not necessarily be moderated immediately. All members of the blog team have other assigned duties that they are responsible for. Comments are moderated on a regular basis, so it may have been the next day before they were addressed.

As part of your Christmas-themed blog post, you should be mentioning the hilarious and quite relevant video "I saw Daddy Pat down Santa Claus" http://reason.com/reasontv/2012/12/21/remy-i-saw-daddy-pat-down-santa-clause-a

GSOLTSO said... Susan Richart sez - "There were no comments between 12/22/12 at 12:02 a.m. and 12/23/12 at 11:36 p.m.?"

If there were comments during that time frame, they would not necessarily be moderated immediately. All members of the blog team have other assigned duties that they are responsible for. Comments are moderated on a regular basis, so it may have been the next day before they were addressed.

And what 'other assigned duties' do bloggers have, other than... you know... blogging?

GSOLTSO said...All members of the blog team have other assigned duties that they are responsible for. Comments are moderated on a regular basis, so it may have been the next day before they were addressed.

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And exactly what 'other' duties have kept the bloggers from addressing such issues as the 11-year-old in a wheel chair who was terrorized by the TSA for an hour, then let go with no explaination??

Perhaps 'other duties' is code for coming up with the right lies to tell the public....

Moderators of this blog have time to relay reader comments such as "Can I have your moms cheese ball recipe?" but cannot post anything substantive about TSA's treatment of Michelle Dunaj or the 11-year old girl at DFW?

Also, if the cheese ball recipe request is considered relevant to this blog, where is my post about PreCheck being a tool to silence TSA critics?

When ever I have to fly with gift, especially during the holidays, having them wrapped always tend to be a hassle. Sometimes it feels they have to open a carefully wrapped gift just for the heck of it. That's why I just stopped bringing wrapped gifts with me to the airport. I reuse some of the boxes I have from Papermart and wrap them later. The boxes are tough enough for air travel and some are decorative enough, I save on wrapping paper.